Complex proposal on hold; new court brings total to six
Gilroy – A regional tennis complex proposed for Las Animas Veterans Park is on hold, but work-crews are now adding a single court aimed at improving tournament play by spring, according to Bill Reimal, board member for the nonprofit Gilroy Tennis Club.
The additional court will replace a volleyball court just south of the skate park at Las Animas, bringing the total number of tennis courts to six.
Teams from Carmel, Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Jose travel to Gilroy in the spring and summer for league play, according to Reimal, who said that ideally, six matches take place at a time.
“When we host, it will be a lot better,” Reimal said of the expanded facility. “It just makes the matches run longer when one team has to wait for others to finish. It’ll give us a lot more flexibility.”
For the last few years, the tennis club has advocated incorporating the five existing tennis courts at Las Animas into a larger facility – a move club leaders say is necessary to attract U.S. Tennis Association tournaments and establish a serious youth tennis culture in Gilroy.
An anonymous offer early in 2005 to pay the construction cost of those courts – estimated at $500,000 – inspired mixed feelings among council members, who welcomed the idea of a free tennis complex but worried about public access issues, as well as the effects of increased lighting and the park’s suitability for a large-scale facility.
The club planned to finance operation of the facility by charging hourly user fees, ranging from $4 per court during the daytime to $8 per court at night.
Reimal said the tennis complex proposal is on hold for the moment, but that club members have not given up hope.
“We’d still like to do that in the future,” he said.
